Antismudge ring



J. PELLEGRINO ANTI SMUDGE RING June 4, 1968 Filed Julyv 2l, 1966 1b, .....:dv'.....

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PW PM Arron/vers United States Patent O 3,386,367 ANTISMUDGE RING Joseph Pellegrino, 10 Shcrbourne St., Andover, Mass. 01810 Filed July 21, 1966, Ser. No. 566,959 4 Claims. (Cl. 98--40) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE An antismudge ring of annular configuration of one piece of sheet material has a substantially fiat plate encircling the area `of -a ceiling immediately around a ceiling air duct, the outer peripheral rim of the plate being turned downwardly for a short distance, then turned inwardly and then turned slightly upwardly to form a horizontally disposed -dust trap groove at a spaced distance below the plate. Lateral air currents discharged across the ceiling from the duct are intercepted by the rim and turned back upon themselves to precipitate dust particles in the groove where they are not visible :but can be cleaned therefrom. An annular battle of U-shaped cross section may be fixed to the ring to redirect air currents laterally outwardly after passing the dust trap groove.

This invention relates to antismudge rings for use with cold air ducts in the ceilings of rooms.

It has long been noted that the area of a ceiling immediately adjacent to a cold air duct of an air conditioning system, located in a ceiling, tends to gradually build up a very unattractive smudge. This seems to be especially true in hotel dining rooms and restaurants and to be unusually pronounced when the ceiling is made of acoustical tile. The circle of dirt around eac-h such duct is not only clearly visible to the occupants of the room, to give doubt as to the cleanliness of the establishment, but it is a constant source of trouble to the management, in that the smudge must be continually washed off or painted over. Such a smudge ring does not appear to form as readily in wall ducts, whether hot or cold, or if it does form on a wall, it is not as evident as on a ceiling because of the conventional whiteness of the ceiling.

It is my belief that the smudge area around a ceiling duct might not occur except for the eiect of rising hot air in the room. The upwardly moving convection currents apparently drive the laterally moving cold air currents, emanating from the ceiling duct, against the ceiling while causing turbulence which precipitates dust particles in both currents onto the |ceiling in a circular area around the mouth of the duct.

It has he-retofore been proposed to provide antismudge rings of greater diameter than the mouth of the air duct, mounted flatwise against the ceiling, the ring usually having a curved, streamlined, sloping, outer face intended to direct the air away from the ceiling 4at a slight angle without forming a barrier -in the air path. However, such devices have tended to merely `form a smudge area of greater diameter beyond the ring and have had no means for actually collecting the dirt particles in a trap.

In this invention, the antismudge ring is of greater diameter than the mouth of the cold air duct and mounted atwise against the ceiling. Instead of a sloping peripheral ridge, Vas in the -prior art, the peripheral rim is downturned away from, .and normal to the |ceiling, to constitute a barrier to lateral, outward ow of cold air currents which guides such currents downwardly. The peripheral rim is then curved inwardly and laterally back into general parallelism with the plate, in channel configuration to form a horizontally disposed, annular, upward facing groove. The groove constitutes an annular dust trap which receives and collects the dust particles usually forming a 3,386,367 Patented June 4, 1968 Fice smudge and the groove smudge is concealed from the occupants of the room. The peripheral ange and dust trap means of the invention is so dimensioned as to be unobtrusive, while permitting easy access to the dust trap for wiping the same clean. Probably the lateral channel at the bottom of the peripheral flange, creates a dead space, as far as rising hot air currents are concerned, which may reduce turbulence. The vertical spacing of the channel below the plate prevents 'cold air from flowing laterally horizontally, or at an angle less than about ten degrees, at least until after any dust particles have been precipitated into the dust trap groove of the device.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a simple, rugged, low cost antismudge ring which turns the lateral air currents back upon themselves while trapping any dust particles therein.

Another object of the invention is to provide an antismudge ring with a curled rim which forms a right angular 4barrier to air currents as weil as an interior, annular dust trap plus lan annular strip for again directing the air currents laterally outwardly.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the claims, the description of the drawing and from the drawing in which:

FIGURE l is a side elevation, in half section, of a pair of antismudge rings constructed in accordance with the invention, each encircling one of a pair of cold air ducts in the ceiling of a room.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged view similar to FIGURE 1, of one of the antismudge rings shown in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a View similar to FIGURE 2 0f another embodiment of the invention, and

FIGURE 4 is a View similar to FIGUR-E 3 showing the device of FIGURE 3 with the annular strip batlie of the invention mounted thereon.

As shown in FIGURE l, the antismudge ring 20 of the invention is mounted atwise against the ceiling 21, of a room 22, to encircle the mouth 23 of a cold air duct 24. The central opening 25, in ring 20 is equal in diameter to the diameter of mouth 23, to register therewith but the outside diameter of ring 20 is substantially greater, for example one and one half to two times greater. The plane of the fiat `annular body 26 of ring 20 is substantially coplanar with the plane of the ceiling 21 and of the mouth 23. Usually the mouth 23 includes grille means 27 for example a set of ring-like louvers such as 28 and 29 to direct the effluent cold air downwardly `and laterally across the ceiling 21. Suitable screws 31 are provided to attach the ring 20 to the ceiling 21, to the duct 24 or to the grille 27 as may be desired.

Unlike the sloping ridge type rings of the prior art, the antismudge ring 20 of this invention includes an integ-ral curled, outer peripheral rim 32, preferably in the form of an integral, peripheral, downwardly extending flange 33, terminating in lan inwardly extending, horizontally disposed channel 34. The peripheral flange 33 may be curved, as shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, or generally right angular, as shown in FIGURES 3 and 4, but in any case, constitutes a flow barrier in the path of cold air currents discharged from mouth 23 in an outward lateral direction parallel to ceiling 21. Thus rather than deflecting such currents slightly away from the ceiling, the currents are intercepted and forced to follow a path normal to, `and away from, the ceiling, as shown by the arrows in FIGURE 2.

The upward facing, inwardly extending channel 34, iS preferably integral with ange 33 and extends around the interior of ring 20 to constitute dust trap means 35. The channel 34 is of curved cross section to form an annular groove 36, the opening 37 of which faces upwardly, the groove 36 being in a plane below the plane of the mouth 23. Preferably the peripheral flange 33 ranges between one twelfth and one twenty-fourth of the outer diameter of ring 20 in height so that the flange and channel blend in with the ceiling and are not obtrusive. However, there is suticient space 38 between the groove 36 and body Z6 to permit access of the lingers, or of a brush, for occasional wiping the groove clean of dust particles and smudge. Because the flange 33 curves downwardly, then inwardly and then upwardly to terminate at edge 39, the lateral air currents are directed downwardly and then inwardly back upon themselves in the annular, partially enclosed space 38.

The rising convection hot air currents in the room, shown by hollow headed arrows, cannot cause dust particles to precipitate on the body 26, but if any such precipitation takes place it is in the space 38, to thereby deposit dust particles in the groove 36.

It will be noted that the smudge formed in groove 36 cannot be seen by the occupants of the room from below so that the groove 36 not only serves as a dust trap means, but conceals the dust until it can be cleaned out. Preferably the entire ring is formed from a single piece of air impervious sheet material such as metal, plastic or the like, and the ring 20 may, of course, be fixed in place by easily detachable means for quick removal for cleaning.

It has been found useful and desirable to mount an annular strip 40 of U-shaped section, by means of bolts 41, under the ring 20. The strip 40 forms an air baffle, or guide, well outside the mouth 23 and proximate the outer periphery of ring 20 to direct air moving laterally inwardly from the dust trap means 35, downwardly again and then outwardly, in a plane well below the plane of the ceiling and substantially in parallelism therewith. Since any dust particels have already been removed from the cold air and collected in the groove 36, there is no further deposit, or smudging, caused by the air discharged from the annuular opening 42.

What is claimed is:

1. An antismudge ring for a cold air duct in the ceiling of a room, said ring comprising:

an annular member formed of a single piece of sheet material, said member having an annular, substantially at, planar plate portion adapted to overlie flatwise the area of a ceiling immediately around the mouth of said cold air duct, said member having an inner periphery encircling said mouth and an outer periphery of substantially greater diameter than .the diameter of said mouth,

and said member having an integral outer peripheral flange turned downwardly, then inwardly back upon itself and then upwardly toward said ceiling to form a horizontally disposed, upwardly facing annular groove, for collecting dust particles, from laterally moving air currents turned back upon themselves and over said groove by said flange, while concealing said collected dust particles from occupants of said room.

2. An antismudge ring as specied in claim 1 wherein the outer` periphery of the said iiat plate portion of said ring has a diameter at least equal to twice lthe diameter of said inner periphery thereof to cover a substantial annular area of ceiling around the mouth of said duct;

and said horizontally disposed upwardly facing groove in said flange is spaced below the plane of said at plate portion a distance substantially equal to one twenty-fourth of said outer peripheral diameter;

whereby the space between said groove and plate is relatively shallow but adequate to permit access thereto for wiping smudge therefrom.

3. An antismudge ring as specified in claim 1 plus an annular baille strip of U-shaped cross section fixed below the outer periphery of said flat plate portion of said ring, proximate the annular groove in said flange, said strip receiving air currents passing inwardly over said groove and directing the same downwardly and then laterally outwardly in a path parallel to the plane of said at planar plate portion.

4. An antismudge ring for a cold air duct in the ceiling of a room, said ring comprising:

annular member means having a at planar plate portion adapted to overlie flatwise the area of said ceiling adjacent said duct and an annular rim portion extending downwardly from the outer periphery of said plate portion to intercept air currents llowing laterally outward from said duct across said plate portion;

and annular dust trap means, extending laterally inwardly from said annular rim portion, said means including a horizontally disposed, upward-facing groove in a plane yspaced below the plane of said plate portion and substantially in parallelism therewith for receiving dust particles precipitated from said air currents while directing said intercepted air currents back upon themselves and while concealing any resulting smudge in said groove from view from below.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,337,280 12/1943 Serre et al 98--40 2,772,624 12/1956 Carnes 98-40 3,087,407 4/ 1963 Averill et al 98-40 FOREIGN PATENTS 5 67,45 2 2/ 1945 Great Britain. 447,195 4/ 1949 Italy.

EDWARD J. MICHAEL, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT A. OLEARY, Examiner.

M. A. ANTONAKAS, Assistant Examiner. 

